James+Hird

Biography- James Hird Audience: For people of all ages that enjoy football Purpose: To inform people about James Hird’s life James Allen Hird (1973- ) James Hird the former captain of the Essendon football club made his senior debut in 1992 after being picked number 79 in the 1990 AFL draft. He played most of 1993 and then in 1994 he won his first of three consecutive best and fairests. In 1996 he was awarded the Brownlow Medal along with Brisbane’s Half-Forward Michael Voss. On the 11th of October, 1997 Hird married Tania Poynton. In 1998 Hird completed a degree in civil engineering and has worked as a consultant in the city link project. In 1999 they had there 1st daughter Stephanie which was followed by Thomas (born 2001) and Alexander (born 2003). A series of injuries stopped him from playing many games during the late 90’s but even the he was named captain of the Essendon football club in 1998 which he held to 2005. Hird had a great year in 2000 with his team winning the pre-season cup and also winning the regular season premiership, he also won the norm smith medal in that premiership and was selected as the captain of the all Australian Team. He missed most of the 2002 season when he sustained a horrific facial injury after colliding with Mark McVeigh’s knee but he was also named as the 3rd best player in the clubs history. In 2003 he missed 8 games but still tied with Scott Lucas as the club best and fairest. On September 27, 2005 Hird handed the captaincy over to Matthew Lloyd but was briefly acting captain in 2006 after Lloyd sustained a season ending injury. Hird continued his great career but still missed many games with injury and sustained calf strains during his 200th and 250th games. In 2005 he also appeared in 1 of the first 2 Toyota memorable moments advertisements when he recreated his game winning goal against west-coast in round 3, 2004. Hird is now involved in football related media and owns his own restaurant in Melbourne called ‘Red Mullet’ and is an active partner in Gemba which is a sports marketing and media consultancy firm based in Melbourne. Although it was thought that Hird would retire in 2006 he went on to play in the 2007 season playing 17 of a possible 22 games. In his final game Hird was one of the best on field with an amazing 34 disposals which is 1 off his career high, then as he left with his retiring coach Kevin sheedy for the last time the crowd gave them a standing ovation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hird http://www.essendonfc.com.au/team/player.asp?id=19 http://home.vicnet.net.au/~brad/96/players/hird.htm

by Dylan weir